Months after an IWK Foundation survey found that the majority of women in the Maritimes felt significant changes were needed to improve women’s health services, the IWK Health Center launched a new study aimed at finding the next steps.
The study will gather input from women and gender-diverse groups across the region. This will also reach nurses and health care providers.
The aim is to find out more about people’s experiences of accessing health services and establish a list of key health research priorities for future research.
“We really tried to understand how women impact their health issues… because we know that the most important questions about women’s health are still not well researched,” said Justine Dol, the study’s principal investigator at the IWK.
Get weekly health news
Get the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.
Dol is the Chairman of Acceleration Dr. Margaret Oulton in Women’s Health Research+ at IWK Health.
A preliminary survey conducted last October found that 56 percent of women reported health problems that interfered with their daily lives. Most respondents delayed or avoided seeking health care and only a third of respondents said they were “doing fine.”
“It feels very disheartening. As researchers, there are many things we can do to advance findings and evidence, but we also need to work to close the evidence-to-care gap,” Dol said.
The research comes just days after a breast cancer survivor in Nova Scotia spoke at a provincial health committee, explaining how she faced difficulties undergoing cancer surgery because of her body mass index.
Kim White also appeared in the Global News series, Unheard. Unserved: Maritime Women’s Health in Crisis, last fall.
“Seventy-five percent of you have no idea what a woman goes through and the obstacles she faces. I’m so sick and tired of everyone blaming me because I’m fat, that I should be dead,” White told the MLA.
Annette Elliott Rose, vice-president of clinical performance and professional practices for Nova Scotia Health, also spoke at the committee meeting and said stories like White’s are critical to informing the work and changes needed to the system.
“This is about collective action that also includes and must include the voices of women and gender diverse people,” she said.
“There is a lot of important work being done and much more to be done and Nova Scotia Health looks forward to working together in partnership across the system.”
The new study will be open for about six weeks and include participants aged 18 and over living in the Maritime provinces.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.